DCC Energy to buy French business from Shell

I'm the deputy digital editor at City A.M., covering breaking news in all sectors. I'm also interested in topical, timely and interesting pitches for our Opinion section. I started out at City A.M. as an energy reporter about two years ago, and still enjoy keeping track of the market.

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Caitlin Morrison

DUBLIN-BASED investments group DCC saw its shares surge yesterday, after the company’s energy division announced a €464m offer for Shell’s Butagaz liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) business in France.

The deal would mark the largest acquisition DCC has ever made, and would increase DCC Energy’s LPG business from around 700,000 tonnes to 1.2m tonnes. According to DCC, Butagaz accounts for 25 per cent of the French LPG market.

DCC will partly fund the deal through a £197.4m that completed yesterday afternoon.

Chief executive Tommy Breen said he was “excited” about the Butagaz deal, and added that the French business is “very cash generative”.

Breen said movements in the oil price had very little impact on DCC’s day-to-day business, but added that the company had seen the benefits of the recent trend of oil majors deciding to sell non-core assets.